It is now well recognized that many contagious diseases are transmitted by touching unsanitized surfaces, and that disease causing germs are able to survive on some surfaces for up to five weeks. Surfaces of concern include counters and other food preparation areas, bathroom fixtures, and toys and other surfaces accessible to children in daycare facilities, as children tend to share toys and spread germs on a seemingly continuous basis. The prevention of disease is much more effective than treatment. There is therefore a need for products which safely control germs on surfaces.
A number of products have been developed for the purpose of disinfecting and cleaning various surfaces. Many of these products use toxic, poisonous chemicals. Every year, hundreds of thousands of children are accidentally poisoned by toxic products. Some of these products are difficult and inconvenient to use. Others must be wiped off by a cloth, and cloths are sometimes often a source of more germs than those originally on the surface. There is accordingly a growing need for more natural and less toxic disinfectants.
Essential oils, i.e. volatile oils distilled or extracted from plants, are natural products known to have antimicrobial properties, and attempts have been made to formulate disinfectant solutions based upon essential oils. However, because of their hydrophobic nature, essential oils are not readily miscible in water. As a result, essential oils are often difficult to prepare in a form that will allow them to be readily incorporated into an aqueous solution.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,403,587 to McCue et al. discloses an antimicrobial composition that utilizes both a solvent and a surfactant to facilitate the formation of a homogeneous aqueous mixture of an essential oil. Although this disinfectant composition is more natural than some, it requires relatively high concentrations of a solvent and synthetic surfactant, and its efficacy is open to question. There is accordingly a need for an environmentally friendly, biodegradable, non-toxic and completely natural germicidal solution capable of being sold as a consumer product to sanitize, disinfect and clean a variety of surfaces, particularly food contact surfaces.